THE STOLEN GENERATION

WHAT IS 'THE STOLE GENERATION'

• The Stolen Generation is the generation in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children were stolen from their families and homes and taken to be put into camps and to be made into slaves.

WHEN DID IT OCCUR

• 26 May, between 1910 and 1970.

WHY DID IT OCCUR

• The Europeans were trying to breed out Aboriginals and trying to take their land.
• The government did not believe in the future of the Aborigines. They thought it would be better to bring them to white families.

WHO WAS INVOLVED

• Aboriginals
• Torres Strait Islanders
• Europeans

THE EFFECTS

• Some effects on Aboriginals were disconnection from families and no sense of belonging.
• Also a lot of Aboriginals became depressed.
• Aboriginal children grow up with no sense of their origins and not sense of belonging, they feel like they are no better then what they are made to be.

WHAT IS SORRY DAY?

• Sorry day is a day where we say sorry to all the Aboriginals for the stolen generation.
• Sorry Day is on the 26th May.

REAL LIFE STORY

• Netta’s story: For 30 years she thought her mother had died When Netta was about five years old, a policeman tried to tempt the young girl away from her mother with a tin of apricot jam. He put her on a truck headed for an institution in Alice Springs where she would be trained as a domestic servant. Her mother tried to get Netta back. The child fell asleep on the truck and awoke to find her gone.

At the institution she could not talk to the other kids who were already there because she could only speak her Aboriginal language, not English. The little girl started to scream, asking for her mother.
It wasn’t until an older girl who could speak her language explained to her what had happened:

“You’re going to be here for the rest of your life, like the rest of us. You are going to be here all the time now. You won’t see your mother anymore.”
Netta would later describe her treatment at the institution as that of ‘inmates’ and ‘like bullocks in a paddock’.

For more than 30 years Netta thought her mother had died. Married and a mum herself, she was in for a surprise.
An office worker rang her up and told her he was with her mum. Netta didn’t believe him, but then her mum called her by her name.

Taken away so young Netta had never really gotten to know her mother, so now she had no feelings about her. The other girls Netta had grown up with were much more of a family to her.
When Netta met her mother again it confused and overwhelmed her. She didn’t even know what her mother looked like.

When her mother finally recognised her, both of them broke down and cried, the mother saying “my girl has come home”.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Self knowledge.
• http://www.english-online.at/history/aborigines/australias-stolen-generatio...
• http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/stolen-generatio...